1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the art of microelectronic integrated circuits. In particular, the present invention relates to the art of processing high fanout nets for purposes of routing integrated circuit chips.
2. Description of Related Art
An integrated circuit chip (hereafter referred to as an "IC" or a "chip") comprises cells and connections between the cells formed on a surface of a semiconductor substrate. The IC may include a large number of cells and require complex connections between the cells.
A cell is a group of one or more circuit elements such as transistors, capacitors, and other basic circuit elements grouped to perform a function. Each of the cells of an IC may have one or more pins, each of which, in turn, may be connected to one or more other pins of the IC by wires. The wires connecting the pins of the IC are also formed on the surface of the chip.
A net is a set of two or more pins which must be connected. Because a typical chip has thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of pins which must be connected in various combinations, the chip also includes definitions of thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of nets, or sets of pins. All the pins of a net must be connected. The number of the nets for a chip is typically in the same order as the order of the number of cells on that chip. Commonly, a majority of the nets include only two pins to be connected; however, many nets comprise three or more pins. Some nets may include hundreds of pins to be connected. A netlist is a list of nets for a chip.
Microelectronic integrated circuits consist of a large number of electronic components that are fabricated by layering several different materials on a silicon base or wafer. The design of an integrated circuit transforms a circuit description into a geometric description which is known as a layout. A layout consists of a set of planar geometric shapes in several layers.
The layout is then checked to ensure that it meets all of the design requirements. The result is a set of design files in a particular unambiguous representation known as an intermediate form that describes the layout. The design files are then converted into pattern generator files that are used to produce patterns called masks by an optical or electron beam pattern generator.
During fabrication, these masks are used to pattern a silicon wafer using a sequence of photolithographic steps. The component formation requires very exacting details about geometric patterns and separation between them. The process of converting the specifications of an electrical circuit into a layout is called the physical design.
Currently, the minimum geometric feature size of a component is on the order of 0.2 microns. However, it is expected that the feature size can be reduced to 0.1 micron within the next few years. This small feature size allows fabrication of as many as 4.5 million transistors or 1 million gates of logic on a 25 millimeter by 25 millimeter chip. This trend is expected to continue, with even smaller feature geometries and more circuit elements on an integrated circuit, and of course, larger die (or chip) sizes will allow far greater numbers of circuit elements.
Due to the large number of components and the exacting details required by the fabrication process, physical design is not practical without the aid of computers. As a result, most phases of physical design extensively use Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools, and many phases have already been partially or fully automated. Automation of the physical design process has increased the level of integration, reduced turn around time and enhanced chip performance.
The objective of physical design is to determine an optimal arrangement of devices in a plane or in a three dimensional space, and an efficient interconnection or routing scheme between the devices to obtain the desired functionality.
A. IC Configuration
An exemplary integrated circuit chip is illustrated in FIG. 1 and generally designated by the reference numeral 26. The circuit 26 includes a semiconductor substrate 26A on which are formed a number of functional circuit blocks that can have different sizes and shapes. Some are relatively large, such as a central processing unit (CPU) 27, a read-only memory (ROM) 28, a clock/timing unit 29, one or more random access memories (RAM) 30 and an input/output (I/O) interface unit 31. These blocks, commonly known as macroblocks, can be considered as modules for use in various circuit designs, and are represented as standard designs in circuit libraries.
The integrated circuit 26 further comprises a large number, which can be tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions or more of small cells 32. Each cell 32 represents a single logic element, such as a gate, or several logic elements interconnected in a standardized manner to perform a specific function. Cells that consist of two or more interconnected gates or logic elements are also available as standard modules in circuit libraries.
The cells 32 and the other elements of the circuit 26 described above are interconnected or routed in accordance with the logical design of the circuit to provide the desired functionality. Although not visible in the drawing, the various elements of the circuit 26 are interconnected by electrically conductive lines or traces that are routed, for example, through vertical channels 33 and horizontal channels 34 that run between the cells 32.
B. Layout Design Process
The input to the physical design problem is a circuit diagram, and the output is the layout of the circuit. This is accomplished in several stages including partitioning, floor planning, placement, routing and compaction.
1. Partitioning
A chip may contain several million transistors. Layout of the entire circuit cannot be handled due to the limitation of memory space as well as the computation power available. Therefore it is normally partitioned by grouping the components into blocks such as subcircuits and modules. The actual partitioning process considers many factors such as the size of the blocks, number of blocks and number of interconnections between the blocks.
The output of partitioning is a set of blocks, along with the interconnections required between blocks. The set of interconnections required is the netlist. In large circuits, the partitioning process is often hierarchical, although non-hierarchical (e.g. flat) processes can be used, and at the topmost level a circuit can have between 5 to 25 blocks. However, greater numbers of blocks are possible and contemplated. Each block is then partitioned recursively into smaller blocks.
2. Floor Planning and Placement
This step is concerned with selecting good layout alternatives for each block of the entire chip, as well as between blocks and to the edges. Floor planning is a critical step as it sets up the ground work for a good layout. Floor planning is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,614, entitled "Hierarchical Floorplanner" issued to Modarres on Apr. 17, 1990. Said patent is incorporated herein as though set forth in full. During placement, the blocks are exactly positioned on the chip. The goal of placement is to find a minimum area arrangement for the blocks that allows completion of interconnections between the blocks. Placement is typically done in two phases. In the first phase, an initial placement is created. In the second phase, the initial placement is evaluated and iterative improvements are made until the layout has minimum area and conforms to design specifications. One particular placement process is described in U.S. patent application of R. Scepanovic et al., entitled "Advanced Modular Cell Placement System With Neighborhood System Driven Optimization", Ser. No. 08/647,605, filed Jun. 28, 1996. Said patent application is incorporated herein by this reference as though set forth in full.
3. Routing
The objective of the routing phase is to complete the interconnections between blocks according to the specified netlist. First, the space not occupied by blocks, which is called the routing space, is partitioned into rectangular regions called channels. The goal of a router is to complete all circuit connections using the shortest possible wire length and using only the channel.
Routing is usually done in two phases referred to as the global routing and detailed routing phases. In global routing, connections are completed between the proper blocks of the circuit disregarding the exact geometric details of each wire and terminal. For each wire, a global router finds a list of channels that are to be used as a passageway for that wire. In other words, global routing specifies the loose route of a wire through different regions of the routing space.
Global routing is followed by detailed routing which completes point-to-point connections between terminals on the blocks. Loose routing is converted into exact routing by specifying the geometric information such as width of wires and their layer assignments. Detailed routing includes the exact channel routing of wires.
4. Compaction
Compaction is the task of compressing the layout in all directions such that the total area is reduced. By making the chips smaller, wire lengths are reduced which in turn reduces the signal delay between components of the circuit. At the same time a smaller area enables more chips to be produced on a wafer which in turn reduces the cost of manufacturing. Compaction must ensure that no rules regarding the design and fabrication process are violated.
C. Wafer Construction
Photolithography is a common technique employed in the manufacture of semiconductor devices. Typically, a semiconductor wafer is coated with a layer (film) of light-sensitive material, such as photoresist. Using a patterned mask or reticle, the wafer is exposed to projected light, typically actinic light, which manifests a photochemical effect on the photoresist, which is subsequently chemically etched, leaving a pattern of photoresist "lines" on the wafer corresponding to the pattern on the mask.
A "wafer" is a thin piece of semiconductor material from which semiconductor chips are made. The four basic operations utilized to fabricate wafers include (1) layering, (2) patterning, (3) doping and (4) heat treatments.
The layering operation adds thin layers of material, including insulators, semiconductors, and conductors, to a wafer surface. During the layering operation, layers are either grown or deposited. Oxidation involves growing a silicon dioxide (an insulator) layer on a silicon wafer. Deposition techniques include, for example, chemical vapor deposition, evaporation, and sputtering. Semiconductors are generally deposited by chemical vapor deposition, while conductors are generally deposited with evaporation or sputtering.
Patterning involves the removal of selected portions of surface layers. After material is removed, the wafer surface has a pattern. Such a pattern may include the wires that connect cells. Where the present invention is utilized, the wiring patterns will be formed as a function of the output of the present invention. The wiring patterns will be a material removed may form a hole or an island. The process of patterning is also known to those skilled in the relevant art as microlithography, photolithography, photomasking and masking. The patterning operation serves to create parts of the semiconductor device on the wafer surface in the dimensions required by the circuit design and to locate the parts in their proper location on the wafer surface.
Doping involves implanting dopants in the surface of the wafer through openings in the layers to create the n-type and p-type pockets needed to form the N-P junctions for operation of discrete elements such as transistors and diodes. Doping is generally achieved with thermal diffusion (wafer is heated and exposed to the desired dopant) and ion implantation (dopant atoms are ionized, accelerated to high velocities and implanted into the wafer surface).